Good content

Created by Jake Elia

November 7, 2012

Our office is divided; to love cat photos or to not love cat photos, that is the question.

Let me share my side of the argument. I hate cat photos. I think they are the worst thing to hit the internet. I’ll admit, I have laughed at one or two, but, let’s be honest, enough is enough. When we start developing social strategies, we do so with content in mind. At the end of the day we want to be producing content that drives customers to connect, engage, and share. We want customers to get more out of our content than a good laugh at a cute kitten. So, in today’s cluttered content world where herds of cat photos run wild, blog posts are a dime a dozen, and more than 100,000 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube everyday, how do we develop content that stands out and matters to customers?

Be authentic.

Let people see behind the curtain. Everything doesn’t need to be perfectly polished, it just needs to be true to your company’s values and purpose. Some of the best content is raw and spontaneous.

Tell your story.

People don’t just want to know about your products and specials, they want to know how you came up with your ideas. Customers want to know who you are, where you came from, what’s special about you.

Understand your limitations.

It’s best to stick to what you’re good at. Pick social channels that play to your strengths when creating content. Not everyone can write and not everyone can create great videos. If you’re going to produce all your content in-house, then stay within your wheelhouse.

So what makes good content? We loved what Matt Compton, CEO of Shopigniter had to say as when he talked about social products for Fast Company. We use these principles as our filter when creating content:

Simple - Online consumption patterns for social are short-format, activity-stream-oriented.

Emotional - Content that creates emotion with customers have better odds of developing a social identity and building momentum.

Beautiful - Sharing is self-expression and expression is more powerful with images than with words alone.

Valuable - Content derives value when people trust the direct recommendations of people they know.

Special - Content that resonates with social customers tells stories that are limited, different, new, or interesting.

Are you creating simple, emotional, beautiful, valuable, special content or are you just clogging the feed with cat photos?